The Monthly Session: Should It Continue Or Should We Let It Go?

Way back in early 2007, Stan Hieronymus had an idea, one he’d borrowed from the wine bloggers, who at the time were further along in both numbers and longevity. That idea was Beer Blogging Friday, the monthly Session that takes place on the first Friday of each month. The plan was simple. Beer bloggers from around the world would get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic each month, on the first Friday. Each time, a different beer blogger would host the Session, having chosen a topic and then afterwards would create a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry. Over time, I had hoped that we’d collectively have created a record with lots of useful information about various topics on the subject of beer. And for a while, it worked great.

Around 2008, Stan went on an 18-month around-the-world trip with his wife and daughter, and I took over keeping track of the Session, and put up a page here listing all of the topics with links along with instructions on how to host and participate. When he got back, it was simple enough for me to keep the archive going and between the two of us keep recruiting hosts. It’s now been 104 months in a row, a little more than eight years, and somebody has stepped up each month volunteering to be the host and keep it going. There have been a few months when it looked like nobody was going to host, but so far something always seemed to work out. In the early days, we were booked out months ahead with hosts, which was great, and made things a lot easier to manage. Lately, however, it’s been hard finding hosts and fewer and fewer people have been stepping up. For the last year or so, we’ve limped along, and we’ve been able to keep going only by the skin of our teeth. There have been more than a few months when someone stepped up just in the nick of time and offered to host.

But I fear we may have hit a wall. With just two weeks to go before Session #104 is scheduled to take place, we have no host and no prospects for one, or so it seems. I could start asking previous hosts to step up — and perhaps I should — but that also seems a little contrary to the spirit of it being organic, something that just chugs along all by itself. I could also start begging and cajoling bloggers who have never hosted, but then again I don’t want anyone to feel obligated. It’s supposed to be fun, otherwise it won’t work. Which brings me to the elephant in the ether.

Should we keep the monthly Session going, or put it out to pasture, and declare it past its prime and no longer of any enduring interest? Certainly beer blogging has changed in the eight years since we started the Session. When I asked Stan yesterday — since it’s really his baby — he wondered if we should “take the philosophical approach, that the Session has run its course,” noting that “it lasted longer than the similar wine project” that inspired it.

We originally looked at it as an opportunity to promote one’s own blog, but more importantly to take part in a larger discussion and build cohesion or community or something vaguely positive among our fellow bloggers. I can’t speak for everybody, but that was at least my hope. None of us thought about it in terms of boosting traffic, but it certainly feels like that’s become part of the equation. There are so many ways to engage with readers, one another and just people in general nowadays, with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and who knows what else that blogging itself no longer seems as relevant as it once did as a medium. And indeed, it does seem like there are lots of beer blogs that have been abandoned or are no longer maintained.

I do know that when I started the Bay Area Beer Bloggers in 2008 there were a little over fifty beer blogs here in Northern California but today’s list on our dedicated website includes less than half that number, and a quick perusal shows me a couple of those are now fairly dormant, bringing the total ratio to around 2/5, meaning three out of every five beer blogs in the Bay Area are no longer posting regularly, or at all, seven years after we started BABB. And that’s the trend I’ve seen around the country, if not the world.

Although to be fair, 1,246 is still a pretty big number. With only 104 Sessions under our belt, and ignoring the fact that a few people have hosted twice, there’s still theoretically 1,142 beer bloggers who have not yet hosted The Session.

So the question I have for the beer collective hive mind is should we continue to do the monthly Session, Beer Blogging Friday? Please vote below, whether you’ve hosted, participated or never even heard of it before now, whether you think it should continue, or whether we should move on to other pursuits. Maybe there’s something else, similar, or whatever, that could replace it, or perhaps we should just go our separate ways altogether. Please vote “No” or “Yes” below:

And if you voted “Yes,” are you willing to put your time where your mouth is? Or something like that. If you’ve never hosted before, would you be willing to? (If you don’t know what hosting entails, The Session page has a description of what’s involved.) If you have hosted before, would you be willing to again? Answer that $1,000,000 question below. If you are willing to host and chose either the first or second answer, please add your e-mail address in the field marked “other” before clicking on the “VOTE” button and it will send it to me. I’ll then reach out and see when you might be willing to host. Right now every month is open from Friday, October 1, 2015 and on. If you already know when you’d be willing to host, just drop me a note directly at “Jay(.)Brooks(@)gmail(.)com.”

Comments

I think I’ve written more Session posts than anyone else, missing just five of the 104 topics. I’ve enjoyed the challenge every month and I’m grateful to yourself and Stan for setting it up and to all the hosts over the years. But I think it’s done, and we should retire it gracefully now rather than have it sputter out.

Why does it have to be monthly? A session by definition seems to require, or at least is consistent with, intermittent appearance. It seems more natural and spontaneous that way, as eg. the choice to have a drink is (or should be). I would run it when people ask to host, if no one asks for a prolonged period, then it should expire.

I suppose it doesn’t have to be. My first reaction is that having it at a regular time, in theory, makes regular readers expect it or even look forward to it, as I know I am when it comes time each month. I also think that’s how you build interest by offering it on a predictable, regularly scheduled basis. But perhaps that’s old thinking, which since I’m old, is my default position. 😉

It’s not old thinking, it’s the only logical way it would actually work in the real world. As well as the readers’ expectations, contributors need schedules and deadlines or nothing will get done. I’ve certainly found writing for The Session a lot less enjoyable without the several months’ notice we used to get. And I don’t think there’s any way of bringing that back.

Well, guys, it doesn’t have to be “old” thinking, it can just be different from mine… There is a difference between the ideal case Jay explained well and the current state. I’d let it run for a while, see what happens. As people miss it they may step up to the plate.

To keep going with any vigour it would need an overhaul and more guidance for hosts (we’ve not taken part in a few recently because they were too specific and/or exclusive) which sounds a bit much like hard work.

So, yeah, sadly, maybe it’s time to retire it.

(And we’ve hosted *two* already or we’d volunteer to take the next one…)

I’ve only hosted once and written just twice more than that (counting what I banged out today). Some of that is me forgetting to check here, but some is also just feeling out to the wind with some topics.

I don’t think “organic growth” is at all exclusive with “asking others to step up,” and I’m glad to see you considering it. Part of growth of anything (plants included) is giving it boosts as needed. Maybe this is sputtering out, but maybe it’s not.

Late to this party a bit, also late writing up my Session post (Saturday morning), but I’m for keeping the Session, and I’m happy to host again as needed (have done twice in the past). I like Bailey’s “guidance” comment, not sure what form that would take. But happy to kick it around.

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[…] The Session round up probably isn’t dead. Beer blogging certainly isn’t dead. It’s growing up. And The monthly Sessions can help with that growth if we, as a blogging sub-culture, want to embrace that growth. […]